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Innovations in food biotechnology reflect the increasing demand for healthy food and the change in conventional dietary patterns to plant-based diets, encouraging the development of functional products and opening new perspectives for industry interests. In addition, the development of vegetable-based products is supported by several studies that state that plant-based diets help reduce the risk of diseases, reduce stress, and even help maintain healthy body weight, making this diet a promising development for the future. The industry mainly uses fermentation techniques to obtain plant-based foodstuffs. However, fermentation is just one method that can develop probiotic products. Other methods include high moisture extrusion cooking and applying shear cells, for instance, for developing vegetable meats. This article summarizes trends and shifts in eating preferences, the response of the respective industry, and the future potential of plant-based products., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Polyphenolic compounds have many benefits, one of which being their efficacy as antioxidants. They can be extracted from various parts of plants and from agricultural waste. In this research, sugarcane pulp, and empty palm fruit bunches from the palm oil production were investigated as potential raw materials. This study aims to determine solvents and easy-to-perform extraction methods that show the highest effectivity in regards to total phenolic and flavonoid yield and the correlated antioxidant activity. Extraction methods comprised maceration, Soxhlet extraction, and ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE); solvents that were investigated included water, 70% methanol and 70% ethanol. The antioxidant activity was measured by the DPPH (diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) method and FRAP (Ferric Reduction Ability of Plasma) method. Based on the amount of polyphenol compounds as well as the antioxidant activity, the experiments showed that Soxhlet extraction with 70% methanol as solvent worked best for palm bunch waste and sugar cane pulp, resulted in about two times higher values for total phenolic content, flavonoid content and FRAP antioxidant activity as well as extract mass (yield) compared to the results from other extraction methods or solvents used in this experiment. The antioxidant activity of the extracts as measured by DPPH method seemed also to be promising, although the trend among solvent and extraction method was rather inconclusive., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Substantial amounts of industrial, agricultural, medical and domestic water worldwide are polluted by different types of contaminants. Removing these contaminants from effluent by adsorbent materials made from abundant, inexpensive polysaccharides is a feasible and promising approach to deal with this problem. In the present study, pectin blended with four other types of anionic polysaccharides, including alginate, carrageenan, xylan and xanthan, were crosslinked with zinc acetate and formed into thin films. In addition, a negatively charged polyelectrolyte, poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) sodium salt (PSSMA) was coated on the film surface with the goal of increasing the capture of cationic contaminants. The average film thickness was measured by a digital micrometer. Surface morphologies and element analysis were obtained by energy dispersive spectroscopy connected with scanning electron microscopy. The swelling ratio and the mechanical properties of the films were investigated in relationship to their composition and PSSMA coating. The sorption of model cationic pollutants clearly improved for coated films and showed to be predominantly based on the interaction of positively and negatively charged groups between film/coating and contaminants., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The goal of this study was to investigate the role of ethanol and temperature on the hydroxyl and carbonyl groups in biopolyol produced from hydrothermal liquefaction of loblolly pine (Pinus spp.) carried out at 250, 300, 350 and 390°C for 30min. Water and water/ethanol mixture (1/1, wt/wt) were used as liquefying solvent in the HTL experiments. HTL in water and water/ethanol is donated as W-HTL and W/E-HTL, respectively. It was found that 300°C and water/ethanol solvent was the optimum liquefaction temperature and solvent, yielding up to 68.1wt.% bio-oil and 2.4wt.% solid residue. (31)P-NMR analysis showed that biopolyol produced by W-HTL was rich in phenolic OH while W/E-HTL produced more aliphatic OH rich biopolyols. Moreover, biopolyols with higher hydroxyl concentration were produced by W/E-HTL. Carbonyl groups were analyzed by (19)F-NMR, which showed that ethanol reduced the concentration of carbonyl groups., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Bovine serum albumin has been PEGylated and glycosylated to create mimetic materials for the extracellular matrix (ECM) with potential tissue engineering applications. Different surfaces for cell adhesion were achieved by crosslinking the initial albumin product and forming either a coating or a sponge-like three-dimensional morphology to mimic the mesh structure of natural ECM. The biocompatibility of the albumin matrix with mammalian cells was evaluated using cell culture assays with NIH 3T3 cells. The results indicated that glycoprotein composition and specific morphology of the assembly can improve the cell growth environment. These ECM mimetic structures might eventually be considered to serve as alternatives for the more expensive collagen and elastin based ECM substances currently in use in tissue engineering., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)